This is real music! This is what should be enjoyed, this is what everyone who wants to cultivate a healthy musical sense, a sound taste should absorb into themselves.
A. Serov
The creative path of J. Haydn - the great Austrian composer, senior contemporary of W. A. Mozart and L. Beethoven - lasted about fifty years, crossed the historical boundary of the 18th-19th centuries, and covered all stages of the development of the Viennese classical school- from its origins in the 1760s. until the flowering of Beethoven's work at the beginning of the new century. The intensity of the creative process, the wealth of imagination, the freshness of perception, the harmonious and integral sense of life were preserved in Haydn's art until the very last years of his life.
The son of a carriage maker, Haydn discovered rare musical abilities. At the age of six he moved to Hainburg, sang in the church choir, learned to play the violin and harpsichord, and from 1740 he lived in Vienna, where he served as a choirmaster in the chapel of St. Stephen's Cathedral ( cathedral Vienna). However, in the chapel they valued only the boy’s voice - a treble of rare purity, and entrusted him with the performance of solo parts; and the composer's inclinations, awakened in childhood, remained unnoticed. When his voice began to break, Haydn was forced to leave the chapel. The first years of independent life in Vienna were especially difficult - he was poor, hungry, wandering without a permanent shelter; Only occasionally was it possible to find private lessons or play the violin in a traveling ensemble. However, despite the vicissitudes of fate, Haydn retained his openness of character, his sense of humor, which never betrayed him, and the seriousness of his professional aspirations - he studies the keyboard works of F. E. Bach, independently studies counterpoint, gets acquainted with the works of the greatest German theorists, takes composition lessons from N. . Porpora - famous Italian opera composer and teacher.
In 1759, Haydn received the position of bandmaster from Count I. Mortsin. The first instrumental works (symphonies, quartets, clavier sonatas) were written for his court chapel. When Morcin dissolved the chapel in 1761, Haydn entered into a contract with P. Esterhazy, the richest Hungarian magnate and patron of the arts. The duties of the vice-kapellmeister, and after 5 years the princely chief-kapellmeister, included not only composing music. Haydn had to conduct rehearsals, maintain order in the chapel, be responsible for the safety of notes and instruments, etc. All of Haydn’s works were the property of Esterhazy; the composer did not have the right to write music commissioned by others, and could not freely leave the prince’s possessions. (Haydn lived on the Esterhazy estates - Eisenstadt and Esterhaz, occasionally visiting Vienna.)
However, many advantages and, above all, the opportunity to dispose of an excellent orchestra that performed all the composer’s works, as well as relative material and everyday security, persuaded Haydn to accept Esterhazy’s offer. Haydn remained in court service for almost 30 years. In the humiliating position of a princely servant, he retained his dignity, inner independence and desire for continuous creative improvement. Living far from the light, with almost no contact with the wide musical world, during his service with Esterhazy he became the greatest master of European scale. Haydn's works were successfully performed in major musical capitals.
So, in the mid-1780s. The French public became acquainted with six symphonies, called “Parisian”. Over time, the composites became increasingly burdened by their dependent position and felt loneliness more acutely.
The minor symphonies - “Mourning”, “Suffering”, “Farewell” - are colored with dramatic, anxious moods. The finale of “Farewell” gave many reasons for various interpretations - autobiographical, humorous, lyrical and philosophical - during this endlessly lasting Adagio, the musicians leave the orchestra one after another, until two violinists remain on stage, finishing the melody, quiet and gentle...
However, a harmonious and clear view of the world always dominates both in Haydn’s music and in his sense of life. Haydn found sources of joy everywhere - in nature, in the lives of peasants, in his works, in communication with loved ones. Thus, acquaintance with Mozart, who arrived in Vienna in 1781, grew into real friendship. These relationships, based on deep inner kinship, understanding and mutual respect, had a beneficial effect on the creative development of both composers.
In 1790, A. Esterhazy, the heir of the deceased Prince P. Esterhazy, dissolved the chapel. Haydn, who was completely freed from service and retained only the title of bandmaster, began to receive a lifelong pension in accordance with the will of the old prince. Soon the opportunity arose to fulfill a long-time dream - to travel outside of Austria. In the 1790s. Haydn made two tours to London (1791-92, 1794-95). The 12 “London” symphonies written on this occasion completed the development of this genre in Haydn’s work, confirmed the maturity of Viennese classical symphonism (somewhat earlier, in the late 1780s, Mozart’s last 3 symphonies appeared) and remained the pinnacle phenomena in the history of symphonic music. London symphonies were performed in unusual and extremely attractive conditions for the composer. Accustomed to the more closed atmosphere of the court salon, Haydn performed for the first time in public concerts and felt the reaction of a typical democratic audience. He had at his disposal large orchestras, similar in composition to modern symphonies. The English public enthusiastically received Haydn's music. At Oxfood he was awarded the title of Doctor of Music. Under the impression of G. F. Handel’s oratorios heard in London, 2 secular oratorios were created - “The Creation of the World” (1798) and “The Seasons” (1801). These monumental, epic-philosophical works, affirming the classical ideals of beauty and harmony of life, the unity of man and nature, worthily crowned creative path composer.
The last years of Haydn's life were spent in Vienna and its suburb of Gumpendorf. The composer was still cheerful, sociable, objective and friendly in his attitude towards people, and still worked hard. Haydn passed away at an alarming time, in the midst of Napoleonic campaigns, when French troops had already occupied the capital of Austria. During the siege of Vienna, Haydn consoled his loved ones: “Don’t be afraid, children, where Haydn is, nothing bad can happen.”
Haydn left a huge creative legacy - about 1000 works in all genres and forms that existed in the music of that time (symphonies, sonatas, chamber ensembles, concerts, operas, oratorios, masses, songs, etc.). Large cyclic forms (104 symphonies, 83 quartets, 52 keyboard sonatas) constitute the main, most precious part of the composer’s work and determine his historical place. On the exceptional significance of Haydn's works in evolution instrumental music wrote P. Tchaikovsky: “Haydn immortalized himself, if not by inventing, then by improving that excellent, ideally balanced form of sonata and symphony, which Mozart and Beethoven later brought to the last degree of completeness and beauty.”
The symphony in Haydn’s work has come a long way: from early examples close to the genres of everyday and chamber music (serenade, divertissement, quartet), to the “Paris” and “London” symphonies, in which the classical patterns of the genre were established (the relationship and order of the parts of the cycle - sonata Allegro, slow movement, minuet, fast finale), characteristic types of thematism and development techniques, etc. Haydn’s symphony takes on the meaning of a generalized “picture of the world”, in which different aspects of life - serious, dramatic, lyrical-philosophical, humorous - brought to unity and balance. Rich and complex world Haydn's symphonies have remarkable qualities of openness, sociability, and focus on the listener. The main source of their musical language is genre, everyday, song and dance intonations, sometimes directly borrowed from folklore sources. Included in the complex process of symphonic development, they discover new imaginative, dynamic possibilities. Complete, ideally balanced and logically constructed forms of parts of the symphonic cycle (sonata, variation, rondo, etc.) include elements of improvisation; remarkable deviations and surprises heighten interest in the very process of development of thought, which is always fascinating and filled with events. Haydn’s favorite “surprises” and “practical jokes” helped the perception of the most serious genre of instrumental music, giving rise to specific associations among listeners that were fixed in the titles of the symphonies (“Bear”, “Chicken”, “Clock”, “Hunting”, “School Teacher”, etc. . P.). Forming the typical patterns of the genre, Haydn also reveals the wealth of possibilities for their manifestation, outlining different paths of evolution of the symphony in the 19th-20th centuries. In Haydn's mature symphonies, the classical composition of the orchestra is established, including all groups of instruments (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion). The composition of the quartet is also stabilized, in which all instruments (two violins, viola, cello) become full members of the ensemble. Of great interest are Haydn's keyboard sonatas, in which the composer's imagination, truly inexhaustible, each time opens up new options for constructing a cycle, original ways of designing and developing the material. The last sonatas written in the 1790s. clearly focused on the expressive capabilities of the new instrument - the piano.
Throughout his life, art was Haydn’s main support and constant source of inner harmony, peace of mind and health, He hoped that it would remain so for future listeners. “There are so few joyful and contented people in this world,” wrote the seventy-year-old composer, “everywhere they are haunted by grief and worries; Perhaps your work will sometimes serve as a source from which a person full of worries and burdened with affairs will draw moments of peace and relaxation.”
1. Characteristics of Haydn’s creative style.
J. Haydn (1732 - 1809) - Austrian composer (the town of Rohrau near Vienna) - a representative of the Viennese classical school. Contributed to the formation of classical genres - symphonies, sonatas, instrumental concert, quartet, and also sonata form.
It was Haydn who was destined to become the founder of classical symphonism. He finally established the classical principles of constructing a sonata-symphonic cycle. The sonata-symphonic cycle usually consists of 3 or 4 parts. The 3-movement cycle (sonata, concerto) includes a sonata allegro, a slow movement (Adagio, Andante, Largo) and a finale. In a 4-movement cycle (symphony, quartet), between the slow movement and the finale there is a minuet (Beethoven deviates from this tradition and introduces a scherzo instead of a minuet).
In Haydn's work, a permanent composition of a string quartet was formed, which became a characteristic representative of chamber instrumental music: 2 violins, viola, cello.
Haydn also approved the classical - paired - composition symphony orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, a pair of timpani and a string quintet: 2 groups of violins (I and II), violas, cellos and double basses. Clarinets occasionally appear in Haydn's symphonies. But only Beethoven used trombones for the first time.
Haydn wrote music in a wide variety of genres:
104 symphonies;
A huge number of chamber ensembles (83 quartets, trios);
Over 30 concertos for various instruments, incl. and clavier;
Works for solo clavier: 52 sonatas, rondos, variations;
2 oratorios: “The Creation of the World” and “The Seasons”;
About 50 songs;
Haydn's creative path turned out to be extremely long. Under Haydn, the activities of Bach and his sons took place, and under him he carried out his opera reform Gluck, he communicated with Mozart, whom he considered the world's first composer (in turn, Mozart dedicated 6 quartets to Haydn). During Haydn's lifetime, most of the symphonies of Beethoven, who took lessons from him in his youth, were written. Haydn died shortly before the young Schubert began composing his songs. Even in his declining years, the composer was an unusually fresh and cheerful person, full of creative strength and youthful enthusiasm.
Haydn's art is closely connected with the Age of Enlightenment, which is manifested in:
the rational basis of his creativity;
harmony, balance and thoughtfulness of all components of the artistic image;
connections with folklore (one of the main slogans of the German Enlightenment). Haydn's work is a kind of anthology of folklore different nations(Austrian, German, Hungarian, Slavic, French). Haydn was born in Austria, near Hungary. However, the district was dominated by the Croatian population. Haydn served for two years at the Czech estate of Count Morcin and for 30 years at the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy. All his life he absorbed musical speech different peoples. But the element closest to Haydn was the element of Austro-German everyday song and dance music.
optimistic structure of works. Vigorous, energetic, cheerful, Haydn’s music instills faith in a person’s strength and supports his desire for happiness. In one of his letters, Haydn wrote: “Often, when I was struggling with all sorts of obstacles that arose in the path of my work, when the strength of spirit and body left me and it was difficult for me not to leave the path on which I had stepped, then a secret feeling whispered to me: “There are so few cheerful and contented people on earth, worries and grief lie in wait for them everywhere, perhaps your work will become a source from which a preoccupied and burdened person will draw peace and relaxation for a few moments.”
Favorite images of Haydn’s work:
humorous,
folk-household. These are not Handel’s legendary heroic people, but ordinary people, peasants, contemporaries of the composer (Haydn’s father is a rural coachmaker, his mother is a cook).
2. Symphonies and string quartets.
Symphonies and string quartets are the leading genres in Haydn’s work, although the significance of his sonatas, concertos, trios, and oratorios is also great.
Many of Haydn's symphonies and quartets are known by unofficial titles. In some cases they reflect the onomatopoeic or figurative aspect of Haydn’s themes, in others they recall the circumstances of their creation or first performance.
Group I includes the following symphonies:
"Hunting", No. 73
"Bear", No. 82
"Chicken", No. 83
"Military", No. 100
"Clocks", No. 101;
and also quartets:
"Bird", op. 33, no. 3
"Frog" op. 6, No. 6
"Lark", op. 64, no. 5
"The Rider", op. 74, no. 3.
The second group includes symphonies:
"Teacher", No. 55
"Maria Theresa", No. 48
"Oxford", No. 92 (Haydn performed this symphony when he was awarded the honorary title of Doctor of Music at Oxford University).
In the 80s, the “Parisian” symphonies were written (since they were first performed in Paris). In the 90s, Haydn created the famous “London” symphonies (there are 12 of them, among them No. 103 “With tremolo timpani”, No. 104 “Salomon, or London”). It is noteworthy that Haydn himself gave titles to only three early symphonies: “Morning”, “Noon”, “Evening” (1761).
The vast majority of Haydn's symphonies are light, optimistic, and major. Haydn also has “serious” dramatic symphonies - these are the minor symphonies of the 1760s - 70s: “Complaint”, No. 26; “Mourning”, No. 44; “Farewell”, No. 45; “Suffering”, No. 49. This time was marked by disagreements between Haydn and Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, who was not satisfied with the overly tragic, in his opinion, tone of Haydn’s music. Therefore, Haydn wrote 18 string quartets (op. 9, 17, 20), which he called the “Solar Quartets.”
Among the early symphonies, the Farewell Symphony (1772) deserves special attention. Instead of 4 parts, it has 5 - the last part was introduced additionally with an original purpose: during its performance, according to Haydn’s plan, the musicians took turns extinguishing the candles, took their instruments and left - first the 1st oboe, the 2nd horn, then – 2nd oboe and 1st horn. The symphony was completed by 2 violinists. A legend has developed regarding its end, which is now disputed. Prince Esterhazy kept the chapel in his summer residence for a long time and did not give the musicians leave. The orchestra's musicians turned to Haydn with a request to intercede for them with the prince. Haydn then composed this symphony, the finale of which, where the musicians leave one by one, should have been a corresponding hint for the prince.
In the 80s Haydn created the "Russian" quartets, op. 33 (there are 6 in total). The name is explained by their dedication to Grand Duke Paul, the future Emperor of Russia, who in the 80s. lived in Vienna. In 1787, 6 more quartets op. 50, dedicated to the King of Prussia (marked by the influence of Mozart).
3. Oratorio creativity.
Among Haydn’s peak works are his oratorios: “The Creation of the World” and “The Seasons.” Both of them were written under the impression of Handel's oratorios, which Haydn heard in London. They are based on English literary primary sources: Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost” and Thomson’s poem “The Seasons”. The plot of the first oratorio is traditionally biblical: the picture of the creation of the world and the life of Adam and Eve in paradise. “The Seasons” is a secular oratorio. The main characters are simple people, peasants: the old plowman Simon, his daughter Hanna and the young peasant Luka. In 4 parts of the oratorio, the composer depicts all seasons and compares pictures of nature (summer thunderstorm, winter cold) with pictures of peasant life.
Joseph Haydn was born in the spring of 1732 in a village in Austria. His father was a mechanic who repaired carriage wheels. The boy's parents loved to sing and play music. They noticed a penchant for music in their son and sent him to study. The boy sang in the chapel at holidays and funerals. He learned to play different instruments.
The young man was working with famous musician, since there were many gaps in his education. He studied various books about music theory. During this period, Joseph composed sonatas.
In the 50s, a young man worked at court. He wrote works for orchestra.
The composer married in 1760. Despite the fact that the musician wanted children, the couple never had them. The couple did not get along in character. My wife did not like the profession of a musician. She was indifferent to his works. But divorces were prohibited then, so the couple had to live together.
Then Joseph worked at the prince's court, his family was the most influential in Hungary and Austria. He wrote music and led an orchestra. Soon the composer was given permission to write his works not only for the royal family, but also to sell them and print them. Thanks to this change in the composer's life, the musician quickly gained international popularity.
In Vienna, the musician was introduced to Mozart, and they became friends. In Europe at this time new musical genres. Art was actively developing.
When the prince died, his son disbanded the orchestra because he did not like music. The composer went to England, where he wrote symphonies. The musician gave concerts in the capital of England. He was very popular and became rich. About a year later, the composer met Beethoven and became his teacher.
Joseph returned to his homeland and settled in big house, worked as a bandmaster and continued to write music. The composer died in the spring of 1809.
For children
Biography of Joseph Haydn about the main thing
The great Viennese classic was born in 1732 in a village that was located on the border of Austria and Hungary. Johann Haydn's father was a wheelwright. He was a literate person and understood music. All big family, and the artisan had twelve children, and was fond of amateur singing. Already in early age The boy was discovered to have a wonderful voice and a desire to learn music. This attracted the attention of a distant relative who was a music teacher in a nearby town. At the age of six, his parents sent the boy to study in the city where his father’s cousin, a teacher and conductor of the local choir, lived. For two years, Johann learned to read, write, play various instruments, and sang in the choir.
In 1740, Johann was enrolled as a chorister at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna and received the position of soloist. The life of the choristers was Spartan: they ate poorly and worked hard. But, despite the difficult conditions, the teaching was professional.
In 1749, the conductor kicked him out of the choir because his voice broke. For five years, Johann leads a miserable existence, trying to earn a living. Having borrowed money, Haydn rented a small room, bought an old harpsichord and began to work. He taught and studied around the clock. Everything the young musician did was related to music. During these years he created his first works and also composed to order.
In 1759, Haydn was invited to the position of bandmaster to Count Morcin. For the Viennese aristocrat he composes light music, which he liked, full of joy and love. Composed his first symphonies.
In 1760, the composer fell in love with one of his students, but the girl decided to go to a monastery. In a hurry, at the age of 28, Johann marries her older sister. Which I later regretted for the rest of my life. The marriage was very unsuccessful. Not only was Maria Anna barren, but she also couldn’t stand musical creativity her husband and tried to annoy him at every opportunity.
From 1761 to 1790, Haydn worked as a bandmaster in a family of the richest aristocrats of the Hungarian family. The musician led the orchestra, composed music, and held concerts every week. Over the course of 29 years, he survived three generations of Esterhazy. Johann was satisfied with the work of the aristocrats, a decent salary, with which he later bought a house, and relative creative freedom. He composes numerous symphonies, operas, oratorios and much more. Becomes famous throughout Europe.
On one of his working trips to Vienna, Haydn met Mozart. Throughout their lives, the composers had a strong friendship. Mozart was a great admirer of Haydn's talent, and dedicated six string quartets to him.
In 1790, the Esterházy orchestra was disbanded.
From 1791 he worked in London, where he was awarded the title of Doctor of Music at Oxford. Haydn's cheerful character and wit were reflected in all his works.
Returning to Vienna, the composer became the leading musician of the era. One of his students was Beethoven, but due to his difficult character collaboration was short-lived. Until the end of his life, the composer remained a master of musical jokes. Even in Symphonies No. 83 “Chicken” and No. 82 “Bear” he managed to joke. Possessing the ability to imitate animals using sounds and natural phenomena, creates the oratorios “The Creation of the World” and “The Seasons”.
In 1809, Johann Haydn died in his home, after a rich and fruitful life.
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Interesting facts and dates from life
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HAYDN, (FRANZ) JOSEPH(Haydn, Franz Joseph) (1732–1809), Austrian composer, one of greatest classics musical art. Born on March 31 or April 1, 1732 (date of birth is contradictory) into a peasant family in Rohrau (Burgenland region in eastern Lower Austria). His father, Matthias Haydn, was a carriage maker, his mother, Maria Koller, served as a cook in the family of Count Harrach, owner of an estate in Rohrau. Joseph was the second child of his parents and their eldest son. Previously, it was believed that Haydn’s ancestors were Croats (who in the 16th century began to move to Burgenland to escape the Turks), but thanks to the research of E. Schmidt, it turned out that the composer’s family was purely Austrian.
Early years.
Recalling his childhood, Haydn wrote in 1776: “My father... was an ardent lover of music and played the harp without knowing the notes at all. As a five-year-old child, I could absolutely sing his simple melodies, and this prompted my father to entrust me to the care of our relative, the rector of the school in Hainburg, so that I could study the fundamental principles of music and other sciences necessary for youth... When I was seven years old, the now deceased Kapellmeister von Reuther [G.K. von Reuther, 1708–1772], passing through Hainburg, accidentally heard my weak but pleasant voice. He took me with him and assigned me to the chapel [of the Cathedral of St. Stefan in Vienna], where, continuing my education, I studied singing, playing the harpsichord and violin, and from very good teachers. Until I was eighteen, I performed soprano roles with great success, not only in the cathedral, but also at court. Then my voice disappeared, and I had to eke out a miserable existence for eight whole years... I composed mostly at night, not knowing whether I had any gift for composition or not, and recorded my music diligently, but not entirely correctly. This continued until I had the good fortune to study the true foundations of art from Mr. Porpora [N. Porpora, 1685–1766], who then lived in Vienna.”
In 1757, Haydn accepted the invitation of the Austrian aristocrat Count of Fürnberg to spend the summer at his Weinzierl estate, which was adjacent to the large Benedictine monastery at Melk on the Danube. The string quartet genre was born in Weinzierl (the first 12 quartets, written in the summer of 1757, were opuses 1 and 2). Two years later, Haydn became the bandmaster of Count Ferdinand Maximilian Morcin at his castle Lukavec in the Czech Republic. For Morcin's chapel, the composer wrote his First Symphony (in D major) and several divertimentos for winds (some of them were discovered relatively recently, in 1959, in a hitherto unexplored Prague archive). On November 26, 1760, Haydn married Anna Maria Keller, the daughter of the count's hairdresser. This union turned out to be childless and generally unsuccessful: Haydn himself usually called his wife “a fiend of hell.”
Soon, Count Morcin dissolved the chapel to cut costs. Then Haydn accepted the position of vice-kapellmeister offered to him by Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. The composer arrived at the princely estate of Eisenstadt in May 1761 and remained in the service of the Esterházy family for 45 years.
In 1762, Prince Paul Anton died; his brother Miklos “The Magnificent” became his successor - at this time the Esterhazy family became famous throughout Europe for its patronage of the arts and artists. In 1766, Miklos rebuilt the family hunting house into a luxurious palace, one of the richest in Europe. Eszterhaza, the prince's new residence, was called the “Hungarian Versailles”; among other things, there was a real opera house with 500 seats and a marionette theater (for which Haydn composed operas). In the presence of the owner, concerts and theatrical performances were given every evening.
Haydn and all the musicians of the chapel had no right to leave Eszterhaza while the prince himself was there, and none of them, with the exception of Haydn and the orchestra conductor, violinist L. Tomasini, were allowed to bring their families to the palace. It so happened that in 1772 the prince stayed in Eszterhaza longer than usual, and the musicians asked Haydn to write a piece that would remind His Highness that it was high time for him to return to Vienna. This is how the famous Farewell Symphony, where in the final movement the orchestra members finish their parts one by one and leave, leaving only two solo violins on stage (these parts were played by Haydn and Tomasini). The prince looked with surprise as his bandmaster and conductor put out the candles and headed for the exit, but he understood the hint, and the next morning everything was ready to leave for the capital.
Years of glory.
Gradually, Haydn's fame began to spread throughout Europe, which was facilitated by the activities of Viennese companies that were engaged in copying notes and selling their products throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrian monasteries also did a lot to spread Haydn’s music; copies of various of his works are kept in a number of monastic libraries in Austria and the Czech Republic. Parisian publishers published Haydn's works without the author's consent. The composer himself, in most cases, was not at all aware of these pirated publications and, of course, did not receive any profit from them.
In the 1770s, opera performances in Eszterháza gradually developed into permanent opera seasons; their repertoire, which consisted mainly of operas by Italian authors, was learned and performed under the direction of Haydn. From time to time he composed his own operas: one of them, Lunar world based on the play by C. Goldoni ( Il mondo della luna, 1777), was resumed with great success in 1959.
Haydn spent the winter months in Vienna, where he met and became friends with Mozart; they admired each other, and neither of them allowed anyone to speak ill of their friend. In 1785, Mozart dedicated six magnificent string quartets to Haydn, and once at a quartet meeting held in Mozart’s apartment, Haydn told Wolfgang’s father, Leopold Mozart, that his son was “the greatest of composers” whom he, Haydn, knew from reviews or personally. Mozart and Haydn enriched each other creatively in many ways, and their friendship is one of the most fruitful unions in the history of music.
In 1790, Prince Miklos died, and for some time Haydn received freedom of movement. Subsequently, Prince Anton Esterházy, Miklós’s heir and Haydn’s new master, not having any particular love for music, disbanded the orchestra altogether. Having learned about the death of Miklos, I.P. Zalomon, a German by birth, who worked in England and achieved great success there in organizing concerts, hastened to arrive in Vienna and conclude a contract with Haydn.
English publishers and impresarios had long tried to invite the composer to the English capital, but Haydn’s duties as Esterházy’s court conductor did not allow long absences from Austria. Now the composer willingly accepted Zalomon’s offer, especially since he had two lucrative contracts in reserve: for composing Italian opera for the Royal Theater and to compose 12 instrumental compositions for concerts. In fact, Haydn did not begin to compose all 12 plays anew: several nocturnes, previously unknown in England, had been written earlier by order of the Neapolitan king, and the composer also had several new quartets in his portfolio. Thus, for the English concerts of the 1792 season, he wrote only two new symphonies (Nos. 95 and 96) and included several more symphonies in the program that had not yet been performed in London (Nos. 90–92), but were previously composed by order Count d'Ogny from Paris (so-called Paris symphonies).
Haydn and Zalomon arrived in Dover on New Year's Day 1791. In England, Haydn was received with honor everywhere, and the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV) showed him many signs of attention. Zalomon's cycle of Haydn concertos was a huge success; during the premiere of Symphony No. 96 in March, the slow movement had to be repeated - “a rare case,” as the author noted in a letter home. The composer decided to stay in London for the next season. Haydn composed four new symphonies for him. Among them was the famous symphony Surprise (№ 104, Symphony with timpani strike: in its slow movement, the gentle music is suddenly interrupted by a deafening timpani beat; Haydn allegedly said that he wanted to “make the ladies jump in their chairs”). The composer also composed a wonderful chorus for England Storm (The Storm) into English text and Symphony Concertante (Sinfonia concertante).
On his way home in the summer of 1792, Haydn, passing through Bonn, met L. van Beethoven and took him on as a student; the aging master immediately recognized the scale of the young man’s talent and in 1793 predicted that “he will someday be recognized as one of the best musicians in Europe, and I will be proud to call myself his teacher.” Until January 1794, Haydn lived in Vienna, then went to England and remained there until the summer of 1795: this trip turned out to be no less triumphant than the previous ones. During this time, the composer created his last - and best - six symphonies (Nos. 99–104) and six magnificent quartets (Ops. 71 and 74).
Last years.
After returning from England in 1795, Haydn took his former place at the Esterházy court, where Prince Miklós II now became ruler. The composer's main responsibility was to compose and learn a new mass every year for the birthday of Princess Maria, Miklos's wife. Thus, the last six Haydn masses were born, including Nelsonovskaya, always and everywhere used special sympathies public.
TO last period Haydn's work also includes two large oratorios - world creation (Die Schöpfung) And Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten). During his stay in England, Haydn became acquainted with the work of G.F. Handel, and, apparently, Messiah And Israel in Egypt inspired Haydn to create his own epic choral works. Oratorio world creation was first performed in Vienna in April 1798; Seasons- three years later. Work on the second oratorio seems to have exhausted the master’s strength. Haydn spent his last years in peace and quiet in his cozy home on the outskirts of Vienna, in Gumpendorf (now within the capital). In 1809 Vienna was besieged by Napoleonic troops, and in May they entered the city. Haydn was already very weak; he got out of bed only to play the Austrian national anthem on the clavier, which he himself had composed several years earlier. Haydn died on May 31, 1809.
Formation of style.
Haydn's style is organically connected with the soil on which he grew up - with Vienna, the great Austrian capital, which was for the Old World the same “melting pot” that New York was for the New World: Italian, South German and other traditions were fused here into a single style. Viennese composer of the mid-18th century. had several different styles: one is “strict”, intended for masses and other church music: it still contains the main role belonged to polyphonic writing; the second is operatic: in it the Italian style prevailed until the time of Mozart; the third is for “street music,” represented by the cassation genre, often for two horns and strings or for a wind ensemble. Once in this motley world, Haydn quickly created own style, moreover, the same for all genres, be it a mass or a cantata, a street serenade or a keyboard sonata, a quartet or a symphony. According to stories, Haydn claimed that his greatest influence was C. P. E. Bach, the son of Johann Sebastian: indeed, Haydn’s early sonatas very closely follow the models of the “Hamburg Bach.”
As for Haydn's symphonies, they are firmly connected with the Austrian tradition: their prototypes were the works of G. K. Wagenzeil, F. L. Gassmann, d'Ordognier and, to a lesser extent, M. Monne.
Creation.
Among the most famous works Haydn – world creation And Seasons, epic oratorios in the manner of the late Handel. These works made the author famous in Austria and Germany in to a greater extent, rather than his instrumental opuses.
On the contrary, in England and America (as well as in France), the foundation of Haydn’s repertoire is orchestral music, and some of the symphonies are at least the same Symphony with timpani strike- enjoy, deservedly or not, special preference. Others remain popular in England and America London symphonies; the last of them, No. 12 in D major ( London), is rightfully considered the pinnacle of Haydn's symphonism.
Unfortunately, works of chamber genres are not so well known and loved in our time - perhaps because the practice of home, amateur quartet and ensemble music-making in general is gradually fading away. Professional quartets performing before the “public” are not an environment in which music is performed only for the sake of music itself, but Haydn’s string quartets and piano trios, containing deeply personal, intimate statements of the musician, his deepest thoughts, are intended primarily for performances in an intimate chamber setting among close people, but not at all for virtuosos in ceremonial, cold concert halls.
The twentieth century brought to life Haydn's masses for soloists, choir and orchestra - monumental masterpieces choral genre with complex accompaniment. Although these works have always been fundamental to the church musical repertoire of Vienna, they have never previously spread beyond Austria. Nowadays, however, sound recording has brought these wonderful works, mainly belonging to late period creativity of the composer (1796–1802). Among the 14 Masses, the most perfect and dramatic is Missa in Angustiis (Mass in times of fear, or Nelson's Mass, composed during the days of the historic victory of the English fleet over the French in the battle of Abukir, 1798).
As for keyboard music, we should especially highlight the late sonatas (Nos. 50–52, dedicated to Theresa Jensen in London), the late keyboard trios (almost all created during the composer’s stay in London) and the exceptionally expressive Andante con variazione in F minor (in the autograph kept in the New York Public Library, this work is called a “sonata”), which appeared in 1793, between Haydn’s two trips to England.
In the genre of the instrumental concerto, Haydn did not become an innovator, and in general he did not feel particularly drawn to it; The most interesting example of a concerto in the composer's work is undoubtedly the trumpet concerto in E-flat major (1796), written for an instrument with valves, a distant predecessor of the modern valve trumpet. In addition to this late work, one should mention the Cello Concerto in D major (1784) and a cycle of elegant concertos written for the Neapolitan king Ferdinand IV: in them two soloists hurdy-gurdy With organ pipes(lira organizzata) are rare instruments that sound like a barrel organ.
The meaning of Haydn's work.
In the 20th century It turned out that Haydn cannot be considered, as previously believed, the father of the symphony. Complete symphonic cycles, including a minuet, were created already in the 1740s; that even earlier, between 1725 and 1730, four symphonies by Albinoni appeared, also with minuets (their manuscripts were found in the German city of Darmstadt). I. Stamitz, who died in 1757, i.e. at the time when Haydn began working in orchestral genres, he was the author of 60 symphonies. Thus, Haydn's historical merit is not in creating the symphony genre, but in summing up and improving what was done by his predecessors. But Haydn can be called the father of the string quartet. Apparently, before Haydn there was no genre that had the following typical features: 1) composition - two violins, viola and cello; 2) four-part (allegro in sonata form, slow part, minuet and finale or allegro, minuet, slow part and finale) or five-part (allegro, minuet, slow part, minuet and finale - options that do not essentially change the form). This model grew out of the divertissement genre as it was cultivated in Vienna in the mid-18th century. There are many five-part divertissements written by different authors around 1750 for different compositions, i.e. for a wind ensemble or for winds and strings (a composition of two horns and strings was especially popular), but so far it has not been possible to discover a cycle for two violins, viola and cello.
Now we know that among the many technical innovations previously attributed to Haydn, most, strictly speaking, are not his discoveries; Haydn's greatness lies rather in the fact that he was able to comprehend, elevate and bring to perfection pre-existing simple forms. I would like to note one technical discovery, mainly due to Haydn personally: this is the form of the rondo sonata, in which the principles of the sonata (exposition, development, reprise) merge with the principles of the rondo (A-B-C-A or A-B-A-C –A–B–A). Most of the finales in Haydn's later instrumental works (for example, the finale of Symphony No. 97 in C major) are excellent examples of rondo sonatas. In this way, a clear formal distinction was achieved between the two fast movements of the sonata cycle - the first and the final.
Haydn's orchestral writing reveals a gradual weakening of the connection with the old technique of basso continuo, in which a keyboard instrument or organ filled the sound space with chords and formed a “skeleton” on which other lines of the modest orchestra of those times were superimposed. In Haydn's mature works, basso continuo practically disappears, except, of course, for recitatives in vocal works, where keyboard or organ accompaniment is still necessary. In his treatment of woodwinds and brass, Haydn reveals from the very first steps an innate sense of color; Even in very modest scores, the composer demonstrates an unmistakable flair for choosing orchestral timbres. Written with very limited means, Haydn's symphonies are, as Rimsky-Korsakov put it, orchestrated as well as any other music in Western Europe.
A great master, Haydn tirelessly renewed his language; Together with Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn formed and brought to a rare degree of perfection the style of the so-called. Viennese classicism. The beginnings of this style lie in the Baroque era, and its late period leads directly to the era of Romanticism. Fifty years of Haydn's creative life filled the deepest stylistic gap - between Bach and Beethoven. In the 19th century all attention was focused on Bach and Beethoven, and at the same time they forgot the giant who managed to build a bridge between these two worlds.
The entire complex world of classical music, which cannot be covered at one glance, is conventionally divided into eras or styles (this applies to all classical art, but today we are talking specifically about music). One of the central stages in the development of music is the era of musical classicism. This era gave world music three names, which, probably, any person who has heard at least a little about classical music, can name: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Since the lives of these three composers were in one way or another connected with Vienna in the 18th century, the style of their music, as well as the brilliant constellation of their names itself, was called Viennese classicism. These composers themselves are called Viennese classics.
"Papa Haydn" - whose papa?
The oldest of the three composers, and therefore the founder of the style of their music, is Franz Joseph Haydn, whose biography you will read in this article (1732-1809) - “father Haydn” (they say that the great Mozart himself called Joseph that way, who, by the way, , was several decades younger than Haydn).
Anyone would put on airs! And Father Haydn? Not at all. He gets up at first light and works, writes his music. And he's dressed like he's not famous composer, but an inconspicuous musician. He is simple both in food and in conversation. He called all the boys from the street and allowed them to eat wonderful apples in his garden. It is immediately clear that his father was a poor man and that there were many children in the family - seventeen! If not for chance, maybe Haydn, like his father, would have become a master of carriage making.
Early childhood
The small village of Rohrau, lost in Lower Austria, is a huge family, headed by an ordinary worker, a carriage maker, whose responsibility is not the mastery of sound, but carts and wheels. But Joseph’s father also had a good command of sound. Villagers often gathered in the poor but hospitable Haydn house. They sang and danced. Austria is generally very musical, but perhaps the main subject of their interest was the owner of the house himself. Not knowing musical notation, he nevertheless sang well and accompanied himself on the harp, selecting the accompaniment by ear.
First successes
Little Josef was affected more clearly than all the other children. musical abilities father. Already at the age of five, he stood out among his peers with his beautiful, ringing voice and excellent sense of rhythm. With such musical abilities, it was simply destined for him not to grow up in his own family.
At that time, church choirs were in dire need of high voices - women's voices: soprano, altach. Women, according to the structure of patriarchal society, did not sing in the choir, so their voices, so necessary for a full and harmonious sound, were replaced by the voices of very young boys. Before the onset of mutation (that is, the restructuring of the voice, which is part of the changes in the body during adolescence), boys with good musical abilities could well replace women in the choir.
So very little Joseph was taken into the choir of the church of Hainburg, a small town on the banks of the Danube. For his parents, this must have been a huge relief - at such an early age (Josef was about seven) no one in their family had yet become self-sufficient.
Cathedral of St. Stefan
The town of Hainburg generally played an important role in Joseph’s fate - here he began to study music professionally. And soon Georg Reuther, a prominent musician from Vienna, visited the Hainburg church. He traveled around the country with the same goal - to find capable, vocal boys to sing in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Stefan. This name hardly tells us anything, but for Haydn it was a great honor. St. Stephen's Cathedral! Symbol of Austria, symbol of Vienna! A huge specimen with echoing arches gothic architecture. But Haydn had to pay more than that for singing in such a place. Long solemn services and court festivities, which also required a choir, took up a huge part of his free time. But you still had to study at the school at the cathedral! This had to be done in fits and starts. The director of the choir, the same Georg Reuther, had little interest in what was happening in the minds and hearts of his charges, and did not notice that one of them was taking his first, perhaps clumsy, but independent steps in the world of composing music. The work of Joseph Haydn then still bore the stamp of amateurism and the very first attempts. For Haydn, the conservatory was replaced by a choir. Often he had to learn brilliant examples of choral music from previous eras, and Joseph along the way drew conclusions for himself about the techniques used by composers and extracted the knowledge and skills he needed from the musical text.
The boy had to do work that was completely unrelated to music, for example, serving at the court table and serving dishes. But this also turned out to be beneficial for the development of the future composer! The fact is that the nobles at court ate only to high symphonic music. And the little footman, whom the important nobles did not even notice, while serving the dishes, made to himself the necessary conclusions about the structure musical form or the most colorful harmonies. Of course, interesting facts from the life of Joseph Haydn include the very fact of his musical self-education.
The situation at school was harsh: boys were punished petty and severely. No further prospects were foreseen: as soon as the voice began to break and was no longer as high and sonorous as before, its owner was mercilessly thrown out into the street.
Minor start to independent life
Haydn suffered the same fate. He was already 18 years old. After wandering the streets of Vienna for several days, he met an old school friend, and he helped him find an apartment, or rather, a small room right under the attic. It is not for nothing that Vienna is called the music capital of the world. Even then, not yet glorified by the names of the Viennese classics, it was the most musical city in Europe: the melodies of songs and dances floated through the streets, and in the little room under the very roof in which Haydn settled, there was a real treasure - an old, broken clavichord ( musical instrument, one of the forerunners of the piano). However, I didn't have to play it much. Most of my time was spent looking for work. In Vienna it is possible to obtain only a few private lessons, the income from which barely allows one to meet the necessary needs. Desperate to find work in Vienna, Haydn began wandering around nearby cities and villages.
Niccolo Porpora
This time - Haydn's youth - was overshadowed by acute need and constant search for work. Until 1761, he managed to find work only temporarily. Describing this period of his life, it should be noted that he worked as an accompanist for Italian composer, as well as vocalist and teacher Niccolo Porpora. Haydn got a job with him specifically to learn music theory. It was possible to learn while performing the duties of a footman: Haydn had to not only accompany.
Count Morcin
From 1759, for two years, Haydn lived and worked in the Czech Republic, on the estate of Count Morcin, who had an orchestral chapel. Haydn is the conductor, that is, the manager of this chapel. Here he is in large quantities writes music, music, of course, very good, but exactly the kind that the count demands from him. It is worth noting that most of Haydn’s musical works were written while performing official duties.
Under the leadership of Prince Esterhazy
In 1761, Haydn began serving in the chapel of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy. Remember this surname: the elder Esterhazy will die, the estate will pass to the department of his son, and Haydn will still serve. He would serve as Esterhazy's bandmaster for thirty years.
At that time, Austria was a huge feudal state. It included both Hungary and the Czech Republic. Feudal lords - nobles, princes, counts - considered it good form to have an orchestral and choir chapel at court. You've probably heard something about serf orchestras in Russia, but maybe you don't know that things weren't going well in Europe either. A musician - even the most talented one, even the leader of a choir - was in the position of a servant. At the time when Haydn was just beginning to serve with Esterhazy, in another Austrian city, Salzburg, he was growing up little Mozart, who still has to, being in the service of the count, dine in the people's room, sitting above the footmen, but below the cooks.
Haydn had to fulfill many large and small responsibilities - from writing music for holidays and celebrations and learning it with the choir and orchestra of the chapel, to discipline in the chapel, the peculiarities of the costume and the preservation of notes and musical instruments.
The Esterhazy estate was located in the Hungarian town of Eisenstadt. After the death of the elder Esterhazy, his son took over the estate. Prone to luxury and celebrations, he built a country residence - Eszterhaz. Guests were often invited to the palace, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-six rooms, and, of course, music had to be played for the guests. Prince Esterhazy traveled to country palace for all the summer months and took all his musicians there.
Musician or servant?
A long period of service at the Esterhazy estate became the time of birth of many new works by Haydn. At the request of his master, he writes major works in various genres. Operas, quartets, sonatas, and other works come from his pen. But Joseph especially loves Haydn symphony. This is a large, usually four-movement work for symphony orchestra. It was under Haydn’s pen that a classical symphony appeared, that is, an example of this genre on which other composers would later rely. For my life of Haydn wrote about one hundred and four symphonies (the exact number is unknown). And, of course, most of them were created by the bandmaster of Prince Esterhazy.
Over time, Haydn's position reached a paradox (unfortunately, the same thing would later happen to Mozart): they know him, they listen to his music, they talk about him in different European countries, but he himself cannot even go somewhere without the permission of his owner. The humiliation that Haydn experiences from such an attitude of the prince towards him sometimes slips into letters to friends: “Am I a bandmaster or a bandmaster?” (Chapel - servant).
Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony
It is rare for a composer to be able to escape from the circle of official duties, visit Vienna, and see friends. By the way, for some time fate brings him together with Mozart. Haydn was one of those who unconditionally recognized not only the phenomenal virtuosity of Mozart, but precisely his deep talent, which allowed Wolfgang to look into the future.
However, these absences were rare. More often than not, Haydn and the choir musicians had to linger in Eszterhaza. The prince sometimes did not want to let the chapel go to the city even at the beginning of autumn. In the biography of Joseph Haydn, interesting facts undoubtedly include the history of the creation of his 45th, so-called Farewell Symphony. Prince in Once again kept the musicians in their summer residence for a long time. The cold had long set in, the musicians had not seen their family members for a long time, and the swamps surrounding Eszterhaz were not conducive to good health. The musicians turned to their bandmaster with a request to ask the prince about them. A direct request would hardly help, so Haydn writes a symphony, which he performs by candlelight. The symphony consists not of four, but of five movements, and during latest musicians One by one they get up, put down their instruments and leave the hall. Thus, Haydn reminded the prince that it was time to take the chapel to the city. Tradition says that the prince took the hint, and summer rest is finally over.
Last years of life. London
The life of the composer Joseph Haydn developed like a path in the mountains. It's hard to climb, but at the end - the top! The culmination of both his creativity and his fame came at the very end of his life. Haydn's works reached their final maturity in the 1980s. XVIII century. Examples of the style of the 80s include six so-called Parisian symphonies.
The composer's difficult life was marked by a triumphant conclusion. In 1791, Prince Esterhazy dies, and his heir dissolves the chapel. Haydn, already a well-known composer throughout Europe, becomes an honorary citizen of Vienna. He receives a house in this city and a lifelong pension. The last years of Haydn's life are very radiant. He visits London twice - as a result of these trips, twelve London symphonies appeared - his last works in this genre. In London, he gets acquainted with the work of Handel and, impressed by this acquaintance, for the first time tries himself in the oratorio genre - Handel's favorite genre. In his declining years, Haydn created two oratorios that are still known today: “The Seasons” and “The Creation of the World.” Joseph Haydn wrote music until his death.
Conclusion
We examined the main stages of the life of the father of the classical style in music. Optimism, the triumph of good over evil, reason - over chaos and light - over darkness, here character traits musical works of Joseph Haydn.